Republican Party operating in a parallel universe

The National Republican Congressional Committee has called upon Rep. Jerry McNerney to resign. No. Really.

Michael Fitzgerald

The National Republican Congressional Committee has called upon Rep. Jerry McNerney to resign. No. Really.

The NRCC sent out an email: "After reckless spending sprees and rubber-stamping Obama Policies, it's time for the California Democrat to call it quits."

Yes. What could be a clearer exit cue for McNerney than clobbering Republican paper tiger Ricky Gill by 11.2 percentage points only one month ago?

Add Barack Obama's re-election, Democrat gains in the House and Senate, Democrats virtually sweeping California state offices ... this is McNerney's death knell?

This press release is not the only evidence that Republicans have mixed the wrong kind of mushrooms in the risotto.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, said several days ago, "According to exit polls, the American people agree with the positions of the Republican Party and heartily disagree with the positions of the Democratic Party."

Absolutely, Tom. And bully for you for perceiving the truth despite its obfuscation by the American people on Nov. 6.

I could go on. Conservative commentators who ignored Nate Silver's polls and predicted a Romney victory (many predicted a landslide); Karl Rove barging on-set on Fox News on election night to dispute Fox's own experts (who had just called the election for Obama); Wayne LaPierre's deranged response to the Newtown shootings (more guns in schools); global warming denial (despite the hottest year on record); austerity instead of stimulus (not working here, Greece or anyplace else); south Valley farmers' rejection of the Delta's collapse (blaming their water woes on a "minnow"); the persistence of birthers (even after Obama produced his birth certificate) ... you get the idea.

Seriously. The GOP has replaced its better intellectual traditions with a parallel universe.

Nowadays you cannot tell them something they do not want to hear. Even they cannot tell themselves something they do not want to hear.

Example: Conservative blogger Andrew Sullivan was not invited on Fox News to discuss his new book on rejuvenating conservatism because he has been critical of Fox, as well as neocon fiascoes such as the war with Iran.

His book was discussed without the author present. And when its cover was shown, Sullivan's name was airbrushed out!

"How central to the collapse of conservatism Fox News has been," Sullivan wrote. "Between Ailes and Rove, the destruction of the conservative brand for anyone under 60 years old is almost complete. Because it was intellectually suffocated by propaganda."

We saw this propaganda machine in action when Sean Hannity visited the Valley in 2009. His special on water turned reality on its head.

In fact, government was protecting farmers by guarding against the total collapse of the estuary on which they depend.

But Big Ag had discovered that exporting high-value crops such as almonds is a gold mine ... in the short term, which is all they care about.

Big Ag wanted "reliable" water for permanent crops such as orchards though, um, well, they lack anything near sufficient legal water rights.

Fox News to the rescue. Ignoring reality is unimportant to zealots afire to defeat big-government environmental wackos and help corporations at all costs.

Especially Fox News, which rakes in the dough by serving movement conservatives the red meat they crave. But that diet comes at a price.

The closing of the conservative mind has pushed the GOP towards more extreme and intransigent. That is a serious concern in a democracy that can't work without compromise.

It's not just Fox. The conservative bubble is a self-reinforcing network of right-wing blogs, newspapers and talk radio hosts such as Rush ("Obama hates America") Limbaugh.

It's not just conservatives, either. All humans are susceptible to groupthink. But the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee isn't sending out press releases that seem willfully blind to election 2012.

Reportedly millions of Fox viewers were shocked - shocked! - when Obama won. Their fair and balanced network had assured them Romney would be the next president.

Hannity, one of the worst offenders, has seen his ratings plummet by 50 percent (!) for the disservice he did his viewers. An encouraging sign, actually.